travels as of late

Hi folks, haven't blogged much lately, then again I haven't had much time for it or I just haven't wanted to? I don't know, any number of things. Maybe I haven't had much to talk about. I would like to say I have been traveling to exotic places and learning lots of new things, but well it just isn't true. As of late I have not traveled to any place exotic and have no complaints of airlines or travel in general. What I would like to say is that I have actually traveled (again no place exotic) but I have been to some places I have been before but this time I got to see people I have not seen in a while and I got to attend a great conference for the professionals in my field.

Closing the Gap



I suppose that is all, the only other exciting thing about going to MN in October was that it snowed a tad and I got to get to some of my favorite soup from Eddingtons. you'll notice it is right near the hotel...it's a chain but hey it has great soup...YUM!

A Maine Vacation...in under 3 min.

So here is a quick and dirty into to Maine for some people who have never been there...a little more though: This is the woods of Maine so there is no ocean in this video. The places visited include:
Spring Rd, Lake Auburn, Auburn, ME
The Appalachian Trail in Madrid, ME
Piazza Rock on the AT
Smalls Falls, Madrid, ME
Rangeley Lakes State Park
Height of the Land, RT 17

Travels...third times a charm, and a run a few weeks after

SO this was the picture from the seat I was sitting watching my first MLB game since either middle school or college (I can't remember if I went while I was living briefly in Boston.) So while I was in Pittsburgh for a conference I was able to get to go see the Pirates loose to the Cardinals with some great people (one being a co-worker.) I was really excited actually because I had been to Pittsburgh twice already and this time I got to explore the city a little more. I mean don't get me wrong I had fun the other two times but one time I was under age (I did get a tattoo that time) and the other time I was there for a wedding which was tons of fun, but there was LOTS of prep work to do. In the end we had so much fun at the wedding. Anyways, so this is a different trip, different sites to see! So this time I got to see a whole other side of Da Pitt! With my co-workers we ate some great unhealthy food. The first place we went was a saloon beer called Fatheads this place was cool, lots of good beer and other drinks and great unhealthy food. I ate a burger with a pirogi on it, seriously?!?! I don't know if I have had something that great in a while. It not only had a pirogi, but it had bacon, cheese, and onions...the best worst thing ever. So Pittsburgh had some bad food but you know what you need that every once in a while. I did counter this delicious culinary concoction with some good grilled fish, and it good...and it was MAKO SHARK. The place was called Monterey Bay Fish Grotto, silly name, but delicious with a delicious view to match it was on the top of Mt. Washington in Pittsburgh. We also went on the incline, which was very cool. Another fun place we went just for drinks was Hofbaurhaus. This place had the big liters of beer and pretzels and skishots and German music and the like, basically it was a fun time had by all. Pittsburgh was fun and I guess the third time was a charm!


The other thing I wanted to post about was my Half Marathon...or SECOND half marathon. The following are the times from my two races.

Providence Cox Sports Half Marathon: 2:44:38 with a pace of about 12:35

New York City Half Marathon: 2:27:09 with a pace of about 11:14

I have said it before I realize I am not a great runner, I am not a fast runner and have only been running more or less for a little under a year. I have done other 5K races but nothing big, a few in Maine and one in NYC. I was happy with the time, and I know I could have done slightly better. I did walk about half of the mile from mile 11 to 12 and it was also in the 80's (at about 6:30 it was 77 degrees with 75% humidity) so you know, my time was a little affected by the heat...I am sure. I right I am looking forward to another half marathon (maybe a cooler one say February??) I am also looking forward to running in the NYC marathon...fun times fun times!

Andy Explains Stuff: Cooking

Here it is folks, an attempt by me to make some kind of 10 min Vlog or something like that. I hope this isn't the last one, well I am working on one about Science...should be fun!

It's been a month time to post

SO it's been a month and I guess a lot has happened in that month. The most important thing that has happened I think would be be that SUMMER is now upon us, officially. I like summer for a couple reasons, mostly because everything is so much more happy and cheerful, even when it's not, it is. The colors come out, the water and sky are more blue, the grass is more green, the lightening bugs come out. You know happy things. We play whiffle ball in the park, running takes place after 8:30 (oh I found the joys of running at night.) Everything is just that much better. The other thing I have always looked forward to are the rainy days of summer, not the ones that last days on end like we had earlier this month, or the ones that it might rain it might not rain. I like the days that it is sunny, hot an humid for a few days, and than we get a nice break with a rainy day. These are the days that kind of reset everything until it's sunny out again, like a nice cleanse for the world. That is today and I think I may be the only one who likes this weather. Maybe it is because I don't feel bad about staying in and getting stuff done in my office, like cleaning.

So in the past month it seems like I have been trying new restaurants left and right. I must say these restaurants are a crap shoot (and I only mean this literally for one or two of them.) A friend of mine was in town going to see a show and I thought I would meet her afterwards. We walked around and decided we were all hungry. As you usually do when you are hungry you kind of pick some place random (if you don't know anything around) and hope for the best. Of course we were on 10th ave...and I don't know 10th ave (Hells Kitchen...something like that) and we picked a what restaurant...Ethiopian...yah...it was to say the least interesting. Orion described it after I told him we ate it as "a diaper full of different colored baby poops," yah that just about sums it up. There is no telling the differences (besides color and spicyness) of the plops of "food" and of course the Ethiopian jokes quickly ensued...fabulous.
We also ate at a restaurant in Little Italy...bland. Unless I don't know the different tastes of Italian food...it was bland bland bland...Parmesean, Eggplant and Chicken are three foods that are good...but when combined...bland...not great and well I don't recommend this restaurant.
Besides the sushi place (Yo sushi...I don't know what it is called but I love it) The other new place is this little hole in the wall in the Bronx, in our neighborhood called Go Green. Delicious panini sandwiches, Yuca fries...everything was really good. I am excited there is a good "go to" place in my neighborhood, that isn't a chain. Well I guess that is all, been busy here getting the apartment put together and training for those races...and loosing a little weight (197ish now) so I will post again soon...btw I am still mad about the BMI charts...

training, pride, stuff

So here it is mid-June. I am happy it is June, but at the same time, June is making me angry. Summer is suppose to be warm, nice clear skies, and maybe night time showers only during the week and clear weekends (unless I am camping on vacation, than it should just be clear and dry the WHOLE time.) So I have been keeping busy training for this crazy half marathon and marathon wondering how I am going to do and what not. I have had some AWESOME training days lately but that seems to last for two weeks and then I have a bad training week WTF!?!? Also I have the schedule from NIKE+ that I follow but the saturday runs always get screwed up with Pride parades or moving (we are moving this weekend.) So I have been moving my long run to Monday, nothing wrong with it, but I would rather run a long run on a weekend when I don't have to take a good chunk out of my day just to run. Soon my long runs will take up more then 2 hours...when I get there...I guess I get there, but those days will be in September when I have more weekend time. I digress. I have start to love running again, and since I am losing weight, or fat maybe (down to 199.6!!) It has become easier for me to run, yah yah yah I know the deal the less you weigh the faster you go, but you know I am okay with me being a little bigger, I guess it is where my body wants to be, and I am a healthy individual, I eat good, I exercise, I am active in community activities...I am happy and healthy. So why does some person who is skinny and probably can spend hours and hours at the gym and lots of money of all the healthy food in the world tell me the size that I need to be? A friend of mine works at Banana Republic and is in the fashion industry (or use to be...not sure anymore) but she has the same rant, it is true, the world as we know it does not like fat, and they don't like anyone who is not the "ideal" the worst thing in the world is a fat doctor, or ever slightly overweight doctor (which for 5'8" apparently anything over 160 is overweight.) Seriously, I don't think I have been 160 since 7th grade...and I have never looked overweight. I think I would look funny if I weighed 160. I am aiming for 185 to start, and even that is overweight, I am apparently teetering on the obese edge. Yah sure, you look at me and say WOW THAT GUY IS WAY OBESE!! I really don't understand where this comes from. I mean I may not be long, lean and slightly muscular (the perfect man APPARENTLY,) but I am healthy damnit and until I drop dead, I am going to be healthy, no matter what so F U BMI chart...F, U!

NYC Marathon??? ME?!?

So just because I wanted to run a marathon, I don't know if I really wanted to do it so soon, I was a little upset when I bought my membership to the NYRR (New York Road Runners) and saw that I would only qualify for the NY Marathon in 2 years and not next year if I ran all the qualifying races this year because I registered 2 weeks or so late. What a kind of silly rule. Put a qualification in the middle of the month instead of the end. So I decided to do the next sensible thing and enter the lottery which I did just to see if I would get accepted. Knowing that I would never get accepted because I have only run a Half Marathon, and am not the fastest runner (some races have those silly qualifying times like Boston,) I looked for alternative like raising money for kids or Lupus, or cancer, something like that, but again, they want you to raise $2500 and up. In this economy, I really don't think that is likely. So the other day I was checking my email and I got an email from Marathon mailer (thinking the worst of course,) thanks for trying but sorry try again...instead I got this letter:




Yup so you guessed it, I beat the lottery and now I am sure there is a line of pissed off marathoners who did not get in through the lottery. I am sure they will not be cheering me on (just kidding how do they know I got in through the lottery.) SO I am going to give it my all, and realize my newest goal of running a marathon before I turn 30. Amazing, I didn't think I would do it, but it happened I am going to run 26.2 miles...26.2 miles...26.2 miles...through all five boroughs and lots of bridges and some not so fun hills...wish me luck cause damnit I am going to need it. I also think maybe I will raise some money for something. Who knows.